User:Ned Scott/FICT/Nov07

This page in a nutshell: Topics within a fictional universe are notable if they have received substantial coverage in reliable secondary sources. Non-notable information should be deleted only when other options have been exhausted.

For articles about books and films, rather than characters and locations therein, please refer to the guidelines Wikipedia:Notability (books) and Wikipedia:Notability (films).

Wikipedia:Notability (fiction) covers the notability of characters, items, places, and other elements within a work of fiction.

Defining notability for fiction

This guideline is a detailed extension of two excerpts:

From Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#PLOT:

Wikipedia articles on published works (such as fictional stories) should contain real-world context and sourced analysis, offering detail on a work's development, impact or historical significance, not solely a detailed summary of that work's plot. A brief plot summary may be appropriate as an aspect of a larger topic.

From Wikipedia:Notability:

A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.

For articles about fictional concepts, reliable secondary sources cover information such as sales figures, critical and popular reception, development, cultural impact, and merchandise; this information describes the real-world aspects of the concept, so it is real-world content.

Based on this reasoning and the above excerpts, fictional concepts can be presumed notable if they have received substantial coverage in reliable secondary sources.

Dealing with fiction

The following sections use the term "article" to encompass articles, sub-articles, and lists.

Notable topics

Topics within a fictional work (characters, places, items, concepts, etc.) are covered in the article on that work of fiction, with two exceptions:

If these concepts are individually notable and an encyclopedic treatment causes the article on the work itself to become long, then the concepts are split into succinct sub-articles that maintain such an encyclopedic treatment.^[1]^[2] However, material should be organized into complete articles and presented correctly; the existence of numerous small sub-articles can lead to disorganization and unbalanced coverage.
Sub-articles are sometimes born for technical reasons of length or style. Even these articles need real-world information to prove their notability, but must rely on the parent article to provide some of this background material (due to said technical reasons).^[3] In these situations, the sub-article should be viewed as an extension of the parent article, and judged as if it were still a section of that article. Such sub-articles should clearly identify themselves as fictional elements of the parent work within the lead section, and editors should provide as much real-world content as possible.

Non-notable topics

Discussions for articles that do not provide evidence of the notability of their subject should be guided by the following principles:

The article is kept if the subject has received substantial coverage in reliable secondary sources and this coverage is explicitly referenced in the deletion discussion or is used to add real-world content to the article. Articles about fictional topics that are notable should be given time to develop.
The article is merged, in whole or in part, to another article to provide better context.^[4]^[5] If material is merged, the article may not be deleted per the GFDL. In-universe information should be condensed or removed as necessary, and meaningful real-world content should be integrated. If the article becomes too long and a split would create a sub-article on a subject that is not individually notable, then the content should be trimmed.
The article is transwikied to a suitable wiki (such as Wikia or its Wikipedia Annex) if the above options are unavailable.^[6] The article is then redirected to the most relevant article to preserve edit history for the transwiki.
The article is deleted if the above options are either redundant, unavailable, or inappropriate. To avoid inefficiency, editors should only nominate articles that clearly fall into this category.^[7]

Avoid creating new articles on fictional topics that lack substantial real-world content (and ideally an out-of-universe perspective) from the onset. Editors must prove, preferably in the article itself, that there is an availability of sources providing real-world information by: providing hyperlinks to such sources; outlining a rewrite, expansion, or merge plan; and/or gaining the consensus of established editors. Otherwise, the article will be subject to the options above. Place appropriate clean-up tags to stimulate activity and mark the articles as needing attention.

Relocating non-notable fictional material

Wikibooks, Wikipedia's sibling project, contains instructional and educational texts. These include annotated works of fiction (on the Wikibooks:annotated texts bookshelf) for classroom or private study use. Wikisource, similarly, holds original public domain and GFDL source texts. See Wikisource:Wikisource and Wikibooks. One possible action to consider is to make use of all of the Wikimedia projects combined: to have an encyclopedia article about the work of fiction on Wikipedia giving a brief outline, a chapter-by-chapter annotation on Wikibooks, the full source text on Wikisource (if the work is in the public domain), and interwiki links joining them all together into a whole. However, Wikibooks opposes in-universe books, so it is not an appropriate place to transwiki large quantities of in-universe material.

Fictional material unsuited or too detailed for Wikipedia can be transwikied to the appropriate Wikia, such as Final Fantasy Wikia and Wookieepedia. Other sites, such as Gaming Wiki, may also accept material. Transwikied material should be edited to meet the guidelines of specific wikias; do not just copy and paste. The Wikia Annex is a staging area for transwikied material and a place for non-notable fictional material that does not have another home; the original Wikipedia versions will also be stored there.

Notes

^ Superman is widely known beyond the original work he appeared in, with plenty of information available, including newspaper coverage and literary analysis.
^ The article on Prince Hamlet contains significant real-world information about the character; he has his own article.
^ World of Final Fantasy VIII, Characters of Final Fantasy VIII, and Clone Wars (Star Wars) were evolved from lists of terms, characters, events, and concepts into articles with both real-world content and an out-of-universe perspective.
^ The 1st Battle of Sarapin summarized a portion of the plot for the game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Relevant information was merged into the plot synopsis of the Galactic Battlegrounds article, and the 1st Battle of Sarapin link now redirects there.
^ Alyosha Karamazov is a major character from the novel The Brothers Karamazov. He is covered comprehensively in the Brothers Karamazov article, and the Alyosha Karamazov link redirects there for convenience due to lack of real-world content.
^ The Xenosaga lists on planets, terms, and organizations had no chance of showing notability, so they were transwikied to the Xenosaga Wikia and redirected to the main Xenosaga page.
^ List of Star Destroyers was deleted because it failed to include the substantial real-world information required to show notability. The information was already available on Wookiepedia and a merge was considered unnecessary, so deletion was the suitable option.

[1] Superman is widely known beyond the original work he appeared in, with plenty of information available, including newspaper coverage and literary analysis.

[2] The article on Prince Hamlet contains significant real-world information about the character; he has his own article.

[3] World of Final Fantasy VIII, Characters of Final Fantasy VIII, and Clone Wars (Star Wars) were evolved from lists of terms, characters, events, and concepts into articles with both real-world content and an out-of-universe perspective.

[4] The 1st Battle of Sarapin summarized a portion of the plot for the game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Relevant information was merged into the plot synopsis of the Galactic Battlegrounds article, and the 1st Battle of Sarapin link now redirects there.

[5] Alyosha Karamazov is a major character from the novel The Brothers Karamazov. He is covered comprehensively in the Brothers Karamazov article, and the Alyosha Karamazov link redirects there for convenience due to lack of real-world content.

[6] The Xenosaga lists on planets, terms, and organizations had no chance of showing notability, so they were transwikied to the Xenosaga Wikia and redirected to the main Xenosaga page.

[7] List of Star Destroyers was deleted because it failed to include the substantial real-world information required to show notability. The information was already available on Wookiepedia and a merge was considered unnecessary, so deletion was the suitable option.

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